Knight relay chess

Chess diagram|=
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8 | | | |kd| | | | |= 7 | |nl|xx|xo|xx|xo|xx| |= 6 | | | | |pl| | | |= 5 |pd| |xx| | | |xx| |= 4 | | | |nl| |xx| | |= 3 |ql| |nd| | | | | |= 2 | | |nd| | | | | |= 1 | | | | |kl| | | |= a b c d e f g h

Knight relay chess The diagram shows possible moves of white pawn on e6. White knight on d4 "relays" knight power to this pawn.

Knight relay chess (also called N-relay chess) is a chess variant invented by Mannis Charosh in 1972. In this game knights "relay" their power to friendly pieces.

Rules

Any piece defended by a friendly knight can move as a knight. Knights can't be captured and they can't capture enemy pieces. Pawns can't move to the first and the last rank by a relayed knight move. If the pawn moved to the second rank by a knighted move, it can move two steps again on one of the next moves. In this game there is no en-passant capture. Pawns can promote to knights and promoted knights also have relay power.

The diagram on the right shows possible moves of the pawn e6. It can move on e7 and capture on d7 and f7 as a usual pawn. However since it is defended by a friendly knight on d4, it can move like a knight to c7, c5, f4, g5 and g7. It can't move on last rank to f8 with a knight move and the black king is not under check. White knight on b7 doesn't check black king as well and can't capture black pawn on a5. White queen can't capture black knight on c3.

White can deliver checkmate in this position by moving Qd6. In this case black king can't escape on c8 or e8. These fields become attacked by the queen on d6, because the queen gets knight power by the knight on b7.

References

* D.B. Pritchard (2000). "Popular Chess Variants". ISBN 0-7134-8578-7.

External links

* [http://www.chessvariants.org/diffmove.dir/nrelay.html N-Relay Chess] by Alessandro Castelli.
* [http://brainking.com/en/GameRules?tp=71 BrainKing.com] - allows to play knight relay chess online.